


Kuroko no Gymnastics

by TheAbnormalNormalOne



Series: The Generation of Gymnastics [1]
Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Acro Gymnastics, Flexible Kuroko, Kuroko stays at Teiko, M/M, Men's Artistic Gymnastics, Mens Pair Gymnastics, Minor Injuries, Mixed Pair Gymnastics, No basketball, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Rivalry, Serious Injuries, Slow Build, Slow Burn, Teiko Highschool, gymnastics AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-01
Updated: 2017-08-02
Packaged: 2018-11-07 21:44:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 9,810
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11067729
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheAbnormalNormalOne/pseuds/TheAbnormalNormalOne
Summary: Teiko Gymnastic Academy. The most successful gymnastic club within all of Japan. In a world where being a gymnast in the next big thing, Teiko uncovers that they have the Generation of Miracles, 6 young men who are going to turn the world of gymnastics upside down. New rivals and new competitions, who will come out on top?For the Generation of Miracles this is the year they have been waiting for.





	1. The Generation of Miracles

Teiko Gymnastics Academy.

 

With over 100 members and 60 amazing coaches, many young men and women were promised golds in their futures. In its newest season five young men grew to the outstanding ability of the highest ranking gymnasts. Their performances in artistic, tumbling and trampolining unbelievably exceptional for their people age and compared to many others members of the club.

 

Each boy had a different set skills and strengths. Moreover, on the same team they were unbeatable. After their first National win, the five boys were named the Generation of Miracles.

 

Akashi Seijuro, the captain of the team, captured gold in the Under 18s Men Tumbling and Floor.

 

Aomine Daiki, the ace, snatched gold from his competitors in Under 18s Men Rings and Parallel Bars.

 

Kise Ryota, the copycat, cheerfully took gold in Under 18s Men Vault and Trampolining.

 

Midorima Shintarou, the second in command, stole gold in the Under 18s Men Pommel Horse and silver in Rings.

 

Murasakibura Atsushi, the overly tall yet skilled teen, lazily but surely seized gold in the Under 18s Men High Bar and silver in Vault.

 

Throughout the next year many more medals were won and the team of Teiko were proud of them. However there was a rumour about them; that there was another member of the Generation of Miracles, one who was acknowledged by the other five. The youngest member who excelled at floor and acrobatics.

 

The Sixth Member of the Generation of Miracles.

 

 

* * *

 

"Laps!" A demonic voice echoed around the gym causing the occupants to shiver. "Did all of you slack off over the week? Start doing your laps right now, I need everyone warmed up quickly before we start running though competition routines."

 

Panting soon started as a large group of people began running around the edge of the sprung floor, a few slipping in their socks as they had forgotten to take them off. The warm up run lasted for about ten minutes, by then a few boys had already finished and were awaiting their next orders from their short but demanding captain.

 

"Daiki, Ryota, you two are on your personal conditioning for the next two hours, find coach and get your sheets. Atsushi, Shintarou rings and high bar are yours until you have run through your routines perfectly fifty times. The rest of you continue warming up, stretches, run through basics and then I want to see you all streaming on trampette by the time I get back. Any shirking off and there will be consequences. A conditioning regimen is ready for anyone who doesn't want to take part or is leaving early as they are not in the competition. Also anyone with special needs go to coach after the warm up part of streaming."

 

Four brightly haired young men obeyed the orders, the tallest two boys - a violet haired and green haired - ran over to their apparatus and started setting up what they needed. The blonde and dark blue haired boys of the four made their way over to the head coach, Kōzō Shirogane.

 

"Ah, Aomine, Kise." A man smiled at the two teenagers, "This is your training for today, when you have completed it go to Akashi and he'll gather the rest of the competition lot so we can start routines." The two nodded and took to papers from the man, with a quick look their faces dropped, what the hell was Akashi expecting them to do? The activities on the paper would kill an ordinary person. The two walked over to the wall bars, setting up from their hours of training ahead. Kise pulled down his yellow leotard and bunched it around his waist, showing the muscles he possessed. Aomine kept his dark blue leotard on, however his took off his tracksuit replacing it with shorts.

 

"Don't you think this is a bit much for conditioning?" Kise whispered, "Akashicchi seems to like piling up the work on us. I mean, how are we supposed to complete all this in one session and then do our routines? It's impossible!"

 

"Shut up, dumbass. He's watching us..." Aomine and Kise gave a discrete look over their shoulders and sure enough Akashi was watching them with an unimpressed look and arms crossed over his chest. Kise gave a grin before sharply turning to the wall bars and climbing up onto them. Aomine sat on the mats and reached up grasping the wall bar with both hands. They started working, keeping a secret look on Akashi, who was staring at them; making sure they weren't slacking off.

 

The two tallest members of the Generation of Miracles were walking over the rings and high bar, which were set up over the pit. Murasakibara yawned, pulling his purple leotard over his chest and on properly, he wasn't in the mood to have dirty foam touch his body if he fell off the rings. Midorima only straighten his green leotard, climbing up the side of the high bar to reach the small platform, he placed a small teddy bear onto it before sitting on it himself. After a few minutes of composing himself, he started getting out his hand guards and chalk.

 

Akashi in that short time had walked over to the bars and was stood to the side. He asked loudly, "Shintarou, have you seen Tetsuya? I have his routine ready but I haven't seen him yet."

 

"I don’t think he’s come out of the changing room yet." Midorima said, taking of his bandages on his fingers and started replacing them with his hand guards and chalk. "He probably took his time changing so that he wouldn't have to warm up and stretch with the rest of us, you know he has a different regimen."

 

A quiet sigh escaped the lips of a red head boy and gave a nod of thanks to the green head, he walked quietly away from the massive gym. Leaving everyone to their own things, he knew nobody would dare defy his words. He had an evil as hell conditioning list and wasn't afraid to use it. He headed back to the changing rooms where bags lay in a mess on the floor, he growled. Why did people have to be so messy? He started kicking items of clothing under the bench, not caring that people wouldn't be able to find their belongings afterwards. It was their own fault for leaving the place in such a mess.

 

"Akashi-kun..." A quiet voice came from behind him.

 

The red head turned on his heels and gave a slight smirk, "I was told you would still be in here."

 

A small, blue haired boy sat on the bench. He was pulling on his gym shoes while staring deeply into Akashi's eyes, just like every other male he wore a leotard, which was yet to be pulled the whole way up over his slightly toned chest and was light blue in colour, he also wore the club black shorts just like the other members. Akashi was also a gymnast and wore a red leotard with the club shorts, he had changed earlier and was waiting for the smaller boy to be ready as they were supposed to be working together.

 

The red head walked over to his locker and neatly placed his folder that contained all his regimens inside and turned back to the smaller boy. "Here, Tetsuya." He handed him a sheet of paper.

 

"Is that my routine?"

 

A curt nod was the reply he got.

 

"Is there anything wrong with it?" He stood up, finally dressed properly.

 

"No, but change the back somersault in the last tumble to an arabian." Akashi said turning to the door, urging Kuroko to hurry up and get out of the changing room.

 

"But I can't do it yet..." He looked at the floor sadly.

 

Akashi gave a smirk, "So what do you think we are doing today? Now get out that door, everyone should be done with the warm up now so we will have the whole floor to ourselves. Also we're going to do some acro today, and I promise I won't drop you this time." A smile was sent the teal head's way, who had a slightly unimpressed look on his face, but after a few seconds couldn't help but smile in return.

 

"I hope you won't... It really hurt."

 

"Ah, yes. Sorry. Now come on we have work to do."

 

How Akashi became Kuroko's acro partner was a long and painful experience for the blue head. For a gymnast who was only good at floor, his coach wanted him to push him to learn another set of skills. After noticing how flexible the young boy was he deduced that the young boy would be good at acrobatic gymnastics, however the hard part would be finding him a suitable partner that could hold his weight, was flexible enough and could dance.

 

A guy that was extremely difficult to find when the only men allowed on the list were the Generation of Miracles.

 

So he started with the person his coach believed would be the best all-rounder: Aomine Daiki. However, their meeting ended up going exactly like this...

 

_Two blue heads stood on the middle of the sprung floor, a look of confusion covered the taller boy. "So how come you decided to come to me first?" The taller male asked, he stared at Kuroko._

_"I didn't." He crossed his arms over his chest, "Coach said to ask you first."_

_Aomine raised his eyebrows, he felt a little sad that it was coach that told him to go to him. He rubbed the back on his head and sighed, "This is for a men's pair, right?"_

_"Yes." Kuroko did have doubts about asking Aomine to try be his partner, he knew that the taller boy had the strength to hold him and throw him around. But the fear came with the dancing, he has to have fluent movement and be able to have the skills to get from one move to the next without difficulty. Another problem was that Aomine would probably struggle doing two things at once which raised another fear in the boy._

_He did not want to be dropped._

_Aomine looked over to the wall bars, to where he was supposed to be doing conditioning with Kise and Murasakibara. He grinned to himself, doing this would get him out of all of the conditioning. But he wouldn't be able to spend as much time with Kise. He turned back to Kuroko with a smile, "I guess I could have a go, but I've never worked a men’s pair or floor, it’s not my specialty."_

_"It's easy, Aomine-kun. All you have to do is balances, dynamic skills and a tiny bit of dance to music."_

_"Maybe easy for a small, flexible boy like you!"_

_Kuroko gave a loud sigh, "let’s go. I don't have all day, I have to work my shapes later."_

_Aomine cringed, he himself was rather flexible, though Kuroko's body was ridiculous, the younger boy was able to move it in to impossible shapes. Kuroko was able to easily over split and fold completely flat. Most people found it disgusting that he was able to do it with his thin body. "Right, lead the way." Aomine smiled. Kuroko walked to the edge of the empty sprung floor and pulled off his socks. He then ran back to Aomine and jumped up and down on the spot warming up his ankles while he looked around the gym for the thing he was after._

_"Go get a crash mat."_

_Aomine looked to where Kuroko was pointing and did as he was told, he walked over to the beam and pulled out the closest blue crash mat from underneath before dragging it over and in front of the waiting boy._

_Kuroko straightened the mat and then smiled at Aomine, "Okay, so we'll start with a simple pair move to start off with. Seeing as you're strong and can easily hold my weight, I think we should start with stand on shoulders. So you will squat down and take my hands, then I will climb straight up, with a little help of a pull from you."_

_A blank face of Aomine was the only reply, to him what Kuroko just said was another language._

_The light blue haired boy sighed and placed a hand on his head, "Okay, let’s start from the beginning. I will stand behind you, you will squat, I will grab your hands which will be above your head, climb up your body by placing my foot in your hip and then to your shoulders. Is that clearer?"_

_Aomine was dazed with the amount of information he was going to have to deal with, he decided that he would much rather be doing conditioning. He swallowed the lump in his throat and moved to stand facing the crash mat, "Okay, let’s give it a try."_

_Squatting slightly he allowed Kuroko to hold his hands over his head and place a foot on his left hip. He then heard his quiet voice, "on three give me a small pull to help me up. The just stand tall and hold your balance."_

_A shaky nod was the only answer to the question._

_"Right. One, two, three." Kuroko pushed with his foot into Aomine's hip and tried to pull himself up, attempting to place his other foot on Aomine's shoulder. It would have been lovely if it had gone smoothly..._

_Aomine panicked as Kuroko started climbing and so he pulled too hard on the lightly boy and sent him flying over the taller's head._

_With a yell of shock Kuroko landed on his back with a splat on the crash mat._

_Cyan eyes narrowed slightly, "I said small pull..."_

_Aomine couldn't help but laugh at the sight of Kuroko sprawled on the mat. It was a sight that was not seen very often. Kuroko glared dangerously at him before standing up and brushing off his leotard from the invisible dust, "I'm sorry Aomine-kun I don't believe you can be my pair, but thank you for helping me. Now, if I were you, I would go back to conditioning before Akashi-kun hurts you."_

_"What? You only did one balance with me!"_

_"But I know, from that one move, that you are going to overpower everything. I would rather not go flying over your head every single time we attempt a skill."_

_Aomine gave a loud huff and turned starting to head towards the wall bars. "Whatever, good luck Tetsu."_

_Kuroko sat back down on the mat and rubbed his back, "that really hurt..."_

 

And so Aomine Daiki was out of the running. Kuroko was in pain for the next few days after his fail of a balance with Aomine, but he still had to find another person. After heading back to the coach and explaining everything that happened, he was immediately sent onto the next person. So next on the list was Kise Ryota, the over eccentric blonde that got on most people’s nerves, and Kuroko admits it could have gone better... A lot better than it did:

 

_"You want me to do what now?!" The blonde screamed, he currently had Kuroko standing on his shoulders and was slightly shaking to hold his balance. Kuroko had explained everything clearly and precise, however the next part of the move scared him a little. It did take them a few goes to get up onto his shoulders, Kise didn't pull him hard enough which only lead to the smaller boy slipping down his back. However after a bit of persistence they managed to get Kuroko up onto his shoulders, almost perfectly balanced. Though, what came next was slightly harder._

_"Kise-kun, lift up your hands straight above your head and have one hand supporting the other underneath, don't interlock your fingers." Kuroko stated slowly, the blonde was rather shaky and his base wasn't as stable as it should be, but he was doing better than Aomine. With twitchy movements the blonde managed to get his hands together, Kuroko guided him into the right position then relaxed with a small breath. "Kise-kun I'm going to do a straddle lever on your hands, please stop shaking."_

_"Wait, Kurokocchi! My arms aren't as strong as Aominecchi's!" The blonde cried, he gave a quick look to the side of the floor where Aomine and Akashi were watching. The tall blue head grinning at the amusing sight of Kise and the red head staring with crossed arms, an unimpressed expression covered his face. The blonde swallowed, "are you sure this will work?"_

_"If you stop shaking and keep your arms straight: yes." Kuroko deadpanned. Somehow, he just knew this was going to end badly..._

_Kise tensed his muscles and held his breath - starting to cause himself to go red in the face - Kuroko placed his hands against Kise's. He pushed down lightly at first, before slowly removing his feet from Kise’s shoulders and stretching them into a very wide straddle. He managed to hold his position for a second before Kise started shaking badly and his arms became like jelly. Kise groaned and released a girly squeal, he felt his arms bending in attempt to keep the blue head steady._

_"Kise-kun!" Kuroko's yell became muffled by the smacking sound of his light body hitting the mat, Kise had dropped him meaning he had face-planted the mat._

_"Ah! Kurokocchi, I'm sorry I didn’t mean to drop you! It was an accident!"_

_Kuroko sat up and gave an emotionless glare to the blonde, "Sorry, Kise-kun. You have failed the test to become my pair."_

_"Wha?" Kise gaped, "no! Kurokocchi, please let me try again!"_

_"I'm sorry Kise-kun you're shaking too much. I don't want a base that is going to shake." He then muttered under his breath, "or one that's going to drop me on my face."_

_"Kurokocchi..." The blonde turned and walked away, rivers flowing from his golden eyes. Aomine's laugh echoed around the gym and Akashi was lightly shaking his head at the blonde._

_Kuroko looked away and gave his nose a small rub, as he touched the tip he felt a slightly stinging sensation. "Ow..."_

 

Two Miracles down, three remained. The two most likely bases had already been removed from the running. Kuroko left the gym to go to the medical room after his attempt with Kise, he pulled out an ice pack from the freezer in the corner and placed the cold pack lightly against his nose. He then sat on one of the chairs on the opposite side of the room, he mentally started cursing Kise and Aomine for the pain they caused him. The door of the medical room opened and Akashi walked in, Kuroko jumped slightly before relaxing at the sight of his captain.

 

"You okay?" Akashi asked as he said next to him, "That last fall looked like it hurt."

 

He pulled away the ice pack and showed his nose to the slightly taller male, "What do you think?"

 

Akashi grabbed Kuroko's chin and moved closer so he could get a better look, Kuroko felt his cheeks warm up as their eyes met. Akashi then sighed, "You'll get a black eye or two but nothing bad."

 

"Thanks..."

 

"Oh, coach wanted me to tell you that Midorima is next to be tested." He stood and walked to the door. Before he left he turned and opened his mouth as if he wanted to say something else, but shook his head in thought.

 

"Great..." Kuroko moaned, leaning his head back against the wall as Akashi left.

 

_Unlike Aomine and Kise, the green head had no trouble holding Kuroko in the balances. He was stable and had just enough power to pull him and throw him around in the dynamic movements. Kuroko was becoming fairly happy with his test run with Midorima, he started to think that the pairing would work. Though through the exercises, movements and prep work Kuroko came across one small problem._

_Midorima did not dance. More like he did not know how to dance._

_No, Midorima didn't flow. His movements were robotic and jumpy, almost like the movements were scary. He looked constipated with every movement._

_"Midorima-kun please move more freely."_

_"Not that I care, but what is that supposed to mean?"_

_"Dance."_

_"I do not dance."_

_"Okay then." Kuroko turned on his heels and walked away and back to his coach, he knew he would never be able to work with the green head - maybe it was something about their star signs._

_He should have never even tried._

 

"Murasakibara next."

 

Kuroko stared at his coach practically dumbfounded. He couldn't take much more of it, it was running out of energy to work with the Miracles. But the boy didn't argue he just turned around and walked off to find the tallest boy in the gym, hopefully he would be able to get it over and done with quickly.

 

_"Kuro-chin, what do you want me to do on three?" The violet head had his fingers interlocked, with Kuroko's foot placed securely in them._

_Kuroko sighed, trying not to lose his patience with the much taller boy. "Pull your hands upwards to help with an assisted back somersault, also help me land by grabbing my arms." He then pointed to the crash mat, "Aim to land me on that if all goes wrong."_

_"Yes, Kuro-chin!" He said happily._

_"Okay. Ready, and, one, two, three."_

_And go flying did he._

_Murasakibara put so much power into the move that he completely missed the mat, he was launched straight over the mat. The giant watched in awe as the small boy, due to the amount of height Kuroko landed in a heap on the sprung floor, Kuroko rolled a few times on the floor to get off his aching neck, groaning in pain._

_"Tetsuya!" Akashi's yell came from across the gym, followed by the sounds of footsteps._

_"Ah, sorry, Kuro-chin." Murasakibara said sadly. "Shall we try again?"_

_Kuroko hissed in pain, "No. Its okay, Murasakibara-kun. Just go back over to bars, I'll be fine."_

_"Well, if Kuro-chin says so..." Awkwardly the titan walked away. On the other hand Akashi sprinted from the other side of the gym just to reach Kuroko, he saw everything and the painful landing that had just occurred. He was not going to let this go on any longer. After reaching Kuroko he flattened out his body and allowed him to relax his body._

_"This is enough, Tetsuya." Akashi stated angrily. "I'm becoming your acro partner, I don't care what the coach says!"_

_Kuroko gave a pained laugh, "Thanks, Akashi-kun."_

_He should have just asked the red head in the first place. He would have come out with no injuries if he did so..._

And that's the story, after injuries and embarrassment, Akashi finally become Kuroko's acro partner.

 

The two small teenagers left the changing room and into the gym. Akashi was right, most of the club were now streaming on trampette, while a few were left to finish up their basics. They walked over the edge of the sprung floor, Akashi smiled. “Just a couple of laps, Tetsuya.”

  
The blue head gave a nod before starting to run along the white line that surrounded the edge of the floor, Akashi was following close behind. The two managed about a lap of the 10 meter by 15 meter floor before Akashi over took Kuroko, the younger boy being stubborn chased after him. The warm up run quickly became a race between the two, there was quiet laughter and slight shoving as one overtook the other. Yet it quickly stopped as it was deemed enough for Kuroko. They slowed to a walk and headed to the centre of the floor, Akashi dive rolling once he reached the middle. The red head stayed on his bottom, moving himself into a straddle position, where he began to stretch. Kuroko, however, warmed up his wrists first twirling them in little circles and figures of eight. He sat himself next to Akashi, watching as the other boy widened is straddle even further. They both kept their warm ups effective but simple. Akashi kept his back straight while leaning forwards, his stomach soon reached the floor. They worked through the shapes, pike fold and straddle folds making sure their backs were straight as they stretched.

 

The smaller of the two boys spoke quietly as he easily slid into right leg splits, "Akashi-kun, when is the next competition? You haven't told us the dates."

 

"That's because I don't know, Seirin Gymnastics Club have only told us that they want just a friendly competition soon, nothing of the dates. They are a new gym and I have heard that they have some interesting people." Akashi smiled, "But coach said he only wants us, the miracles, to do one apparatus each. Apart from you and I who can do acro routine and another piece."

 

"So what will you do, I'm obviously stuck with floor." Kuroko changed splits to his left (better) leg.

 

"Tumbling. I want to be able to get my double straight back right."

 

Kuroko gave an almost invisible smirk, "Didn't you land on your stomach yesterday when you attempted the whole tumble?"

 

Akashi felt the embarrassment raise up in his chest, but he didn't show it. Yesterday, upon trying his newly formed tumble for the first time, he undercut his flick leading into the double straight back somersault, hence the skill was whipped and he landed right on his front. Slight bruising and friction burns now covered his chest. Thankfully it was a training session with only the miracles and a few coaches. But the laughter from Kise was enough to make it seem as the whole gym was watching.

 

A laugh escaped the younger boy’s throat, "You do know it was pretty funny."

 

"Yes, Tetsuya. But it hurt like hell." Akashi repositioned his body into box splits. "Work your over split, you’re going to hurt yourself otherwise."

 

"Would you lift my leg up then?"

 

Akashi nodded, moving so that he could hold Kuroko's ankle while staying in splits himself. The blue head relaxed his muscles as the other boy lifted his leg up stretching is splits further than before. Kuroko was by far the most flexible person in the entire gym, he fascinated many people with his flexibility - once they noticed him that is.

 

A sudden ping of a bar resonated around the gym, a loud yell and thump of a body quickly followed. Every head in the gym turned to the sound of the voice, and there was Kise lying awkwardly on the floor under the parallel bars. Aomine was sat next to him, laughing his ass off. Kise had attempted a handstand on the bars, however much to his dismay had slipped off the bar and landed on his face. Akashi shook his head, "Idiots."

 

Kuroko just nodded in agreement.

 

After stretching their bodies properly they started with basic movies; handstands, round offs and walkovers. Their warm up had proceeded for another half hour until they were completely ready.

 

"Right, Tetsuya are you done?"

 

He was given a small nod.

 

"Okay, your final tumble was?"

 

"Round off, flick, flick, straight back, flick, back somersault."

 

Akashi smiled, "You ready to try some arabians?"

 

"I don't have a choice, do I?"

 

With a smile Akashi shook his head.

 

"Fine. Let’s get it over with."

 

Both boys stood and wandered over to the side where they grabbed a crash mat. After pulling it onto the floor, both Akashi and Kuroko walked across the floor and faced the mat. They now had a run up. Akashi was going to try is own tumble while the other would practice his new skill. Kuroko's took a deep yet quiet breath, "I change my mind I'm not doing this."

 

"Yes, you are."

 

"Nope."

 

"You'll have to do it eventually, you've put it off for weeks now."

 

"And I can put it off for a few more."

 

"Don't be stubborn, Tetsuya."

 

Kuroko pouted slightly before turning towards the crash mat opposite him. With a readying breath he ran at the mat, a few metres before it he did a hurdle step round off tuck back. He spotted his landing and then gave a look to Akashi who was waiting for him to get on with the skill. It took him a couple of goes just doing a tuck back before he gained the confidence to actually try the arabian. He took another big breath and then took a run up to the mat with a hurdle step round off, with the rebound he managed the half turn entry and started to tuck, however he decided to bottle out of the move and open out, which lead him to face-planting the ground. Thankfully landing on the mat.

 

"Okay, you tried. Now, why did you bail?" Akashi walked over to mat and stared and the blue haired boy with a playful grin.

 

"I hate arabians." Came his muffled voice.

 

"That's no excuse." Akashi smirked, Kuroko rolled over and looked up to him. The red head gave him a hand up, "Again."

 

He continued the move again and again, landing on his head, back and ass. Every time he landed wrong Akashi would give him a compliment and something to improve on, and Kuroko would take everything in. He would make sure he did the skill to the best of his ability.

 

After almost an hour of the same move, over and over again, Kuroko had finally managed ONE good arabian. Akashi was so proud that a hug was shared between the two, after a minute or so Kuroko pushed Akashi lightly away and gave him an awkward smile. It was no secret to the other people in the gym that Kuroko did have a small thing for is slightly taller partner. The other miracles had tried everything to get Akashi to notice, but said boy was just too dense. Kuroko didn’t mind in the slightest though, he was just happy that Akashi was working with him in a pair.

 

“Okay, I’m happy we’ve managed that one arabian.” Akashi chuckled, they had pulled the mat of the floor and were now sat down once again in the middle of the floor. “So have you decided on the music for our routine?”

 

Kuroko nodded, “I can’t actually believe you’re actually letting me pick the music.”

 

“Well you are the Master of the Floor.” Akashi gave him a soft look, “so what have you decided.”

 

“Well for nationals we’ll have our dynamic routine and acrobatic (balance) routine, so I’m leaving the music for that until later.” Kuroko went back to stretching to keep his muscle warm. “But for this comp at Seirin you said just one routine, meaning it will have both balances and dynamic, I managed to narrow it down to a two; Crystallize or Roundtable Rival by Lindsey Stirling.”

 

Akashi hummed, “Both good choices. Why all the dubstep feel though?”

 

“Dubstep carries the best beat, and it’s powerful. I normally like something classical, softer when I have balances but I thought these would be the best as we have dynamics.” Kuroko looked at the floor little embarrassed, he felt a hand ruffle his hair.

 

“You’re cute Tetsuya,” Akashi laughed. “Anyway, take your time picking.” A nod from a red faced Kuroko was his reply.

 

“Okay!” Kōzō Shirogane voice eched around the gym, “Everyone gather on the floor!” withing seconds everyone on the gym had gathered, the miracles included. “Right listen up, good work those who are not in the competition, you may go stretch and then head home, we’ll see you Monday.” Most of the gymnasts started to head away from the coach to the other side of the floor getting ready to stretch. It left Kōzō Shirogane with a small group of teenagers and the miracles, those who were deemed skilled enough to try at competitions. “Now, you lot.” He looked around at the 12 or so gymnasts, “You have an hour for a break then I want you back for competition routines. I finally got the dates for Seirin Gymnastics club and we have a month of practice left. Alright I want to see you back here at 1pm for a rewarm up, understood?”

 

“Yes coach.” The group replied.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Crystallize and Roundtable Rival belong to Lindsey Sterling and not meeeee!
> 
> Any questions? Just Ask!


	2. Competition Preperation

 

An hour was quickly passing for the small group of gymnasts who were quietly munching on their healthy snacks. The Miracles sat close together on the audience seating that were on the furthest side of the gym, chatting quietly to one another. Kuroko chomped on his scarlet apple, happily tuning in on Kise and Aomine’s conversation, which wasn’t much of conversation as it was arguing as this point, while he kept an eye on Akashi who was talking with Midorima.

The arguing between Kise and Aomine was something that happened frequently and everyone just left them to it, not wanting to get involved or dragged into it. Well they were left alone until someone, mainly the head coach, started having higher blood pressure due to their antics. Even Akashi had given up in breaking the pair’s arguments, it just seemed to be a part of their personalities’ butting heads with one another constantly and literally. The only time the Captain would interfere was when they were conditioning or at a competition.

Murasakibara was sat on the bench below them, stuffing his face with foods that both the coach and Akashi would deem inappropriate for a gymnast. Hence the titan was sneakily pulling the sweets from a concealed purple rucksack by his side. But it didn’t escape the eyes of the red head, who would be having words with the coach to see if he could get Murasakibara to stop bring in the sweets, or at least bring in something healthier. The miracles were there to set an example for the younger gymnasts and give them something to aim at.

But thinking about it, the miracles weren’t the best role models behaviour wise.

“So Seirin?” Aomine asked out loud, gaining everyone’s attention and wanting to get away from the discussion he was having with the annoying blonde beside him. “Where is it?”

“Still in the Tokyo Region.” Akashi answered, pushing a grape passed his lips with a pop. He quickly chewed and swallowed before continuing, “However it’s further north, about half an hour away.”

“Well that’s not long enough to sleep on the bus for!” Aomine moaned, Kise laughed which only cause Aomine to push him backwards off the bench. There was a moan of pain from the blonde, which soon turned to a whine of sadness when he noticed that everyone had ignored him.

Akashi shook his head, “There will be no time for sleep on the bus as we will be going through plans for the day. Furthermore, once you fall asleep you won’t wake up until it’s your turn to compete and I’d rather not go through that again.”

The taller boy grinned at the memories, it was one of their very first competitions together.

He got it a lot of trouble from the coach as he almost missed his go on rings, nearly costing the club a gold medal. They were going to reminisce more, however their break was coming to end their coach was already heading over with a handful of paper in his hands.

Behind him was another coach, a young man with black hair, wearing the white and light blue coach’s shirt and a  black armband on his left forearm. The young coach was holding a very large cardboard box with a slightly smaller one stacked on top of it and with a thump he dropped them onto the floor.

The gymnasts turned around on the benches to face the men before them, falling silent as the oldest opened his mouth to speak.

“Right, congratulations to all of you for being put forward into this friendly competition, be happy as we have picked you out of everyone else. Now down to business, first thing we’re going to do is check everyone doing the competition is here and that I have you doing the correct disciplines. I will say name, along with the discipline we have you written down for, if there are any mistakes please raise your voice.”

The teenagers listened closely to the coach.

“Hisakawa, Kato and Uedo you three are doing all the apparatus in women’s artistic, and Mori and Oshiro you two are doing all of the men’s artistic apparatus. This is because it will be your first competition experience and we want to give you the full run though.Now this leaves Yukimura and the miracles. Now Yukimura,” Shirogane looked up from his paper and to an average looking 17 year old sat on the benches, dark brown hair pushed back out of his eyes with a white headband. He gave look to the younger coach behind him, who smiled with a nod, he was the tumbling coach. “You said you wanted to try tumbling in a competition situation, Tumbling Coach Nijimura and I have deemed you skilled enough to try, so that’s what we have entered you in tumbling in this competition. You will be with Akashi so when he’s not busy ask him for any advice.”

Yukimura high-fives the dirty blonde boy next to him and grinned.

“Now finally you miracles, you  _ lovely _ lot have only been allowed to enter into your strongest apparatus and this was our terms to Seirin as it is only a friendly. Additionally, this way we’re going to let Seirin know what they have coming at the next regionals, because then you will be competing in all six apparatus. This mean – as said before - Akashi you’re definitely tumbling, Aomine rings or parallel bars you need to choose and quickly please, Kise your vaulting as there is no trampolining this competition so we are looking into one for you. Midorima pommel horse, Murasakibara your on high bar, and Kuroko the floor is all yours.”

Coach Shirogane cleared his throat before continuing, “There is one other thing, Seirin have also got a couple of acro partners and though they only have mixed pairs, I have rung ahead and talked about putting them up against our only acro and male-male pair, to which they have agreed.” A cheer came about the gymnasts, “So Akashi and Kuroko-” the two looked up, “-I want a perfected acro routine with your hardest skills if you please, let’s give Seirin a run for their money.” The pair nodded in return.

The young group of teenagers started to shift, packing the rubbish from their foods.

“Ah, not just yet.” Shirogane smiled, “I have one more announcement.” A confused look was passed around. “Starting this year we have a new uniform for those competing, so these are your new tracksuits.”

Coach Nijimura started to open the biggest box and pull one of the tracksuits.

The new tracksuits were similar to the old ones, but instead of having large light blue stripe down the side and arms, it was split into three smaller ones. The tracksuit bottoms also had been changed to match this and split the large blue stripe into three smaller ones. Gone were the buttons that used to be on the front of the jacket as it had been replaced with a white zip and gone was the light blue collar as that had also been turned white, though it did have a thin light blue stripe around the middle instead of dark blue.

Just like the last tracksuit all the light blue stripes were lined with a thin dark blue and the Teiko name was embroidered in black horizontally across the shoulders on the back and smaller vertically on the left side at the front next to their Academy shield.

“You may come collect yours before the start of the warm up, furthermore there have been some leotard changes.” Shirogane knew at this point there was going to be some complaints for them gymnasts.

“For starters we are no longer having any leotards made from velour, we are changing to lycra, the colours come out better they also show better shapes with your bodies. The pattern is still the same, the blue strip down the side and colours are still the same. However girls, you’re not allowed shorts anymore, JG rules, however we have changed from short sleeves to long sleeves.” The three girls at the back were annoyed at the shorts, however were happier with long sleeved leotards. “Now boys, you have changed from black longs to white shorts-” almost immediate there were moans of protest from the boys, including some of the miracles, “-and also sleeve length, you are all changing from long to short.” The whines changed to cheers almost immediately.

Thinking that Coach Shirogane was finished, the gymnasts stood and started to walk off the benches to throw the rubbish from their food away. Coach Shirogane was about to walk over to the floor to lead the warm up when Nijimura tapped his arm and whispered into his ear.

“Ah yes, that’s correct Coach Nijimura!” Shirogane quickly shouted, gaining everyone’s attention again, “Akashi, Kuroko, we have a surprise for you two.”

“Huh?” The two boys said together, turning to their coach once again.

“Coach Matsuoka and I have designed you two a new leotard, one that has been specifically designed for acro men. So along with the artistic leotard you will have an acro one, make sure you two are wearing the correct leotard at the correct point during your competitions.”

The old man turned around and opened the smaller box and pulled out a white leotard, the pattern was completely different. It was designed to match the new tracksuits. There wasn’t any large blue strips down the sides, however there were two smaller stripes – a dark blue and a light blue – starting at the right shoulder and travelling down the centre of the body towards the hip, also on the left side there were two matching stripes this time starting under the armpit and finishing at the waist. But the thing to catch everyone’s eyes were the sleeves, they weren’t short, they were shoulder sleeves meaning the sleeves stopped an inch before the elbow.

Both Akashi and Kuroko didn’t know what to feel, they had never received something specifically for their acrobatics before.

“Enjoy the leotards you two and feel special.” Coach threw the acro leotards at the two small boys and grinned, “Help yourself everyone, each leotard and tracksuit has a name on it as it will be specifically your size. Keep it safe and please wash it properly Aomine.”

“What? Why only me?” Aomine said loudly.

“Because you somehow turned your last white leotard dark blue and I’d rather not have that happen to your brand new one. They cost a lot of money to replace and I’m quite tempted to make you pay for the next one yourself…”

“No! Fair enough… I’ll keep it clean, hand washing? Right?” Aomine grumbled, gaining nods for everyone in the hall.

The male left the benches and over to the boxes on the floor, it didn’t take him long to find the tracksuit and leotard with his name attached. He stood tall and turned to go and put his new clothing away, he passed Akashi and Kuroko who were staring at the acrobatic leotards in their hands, they both looked a bit dumbfounded at the idea that they both had something special that was only theirs. Akashi’s stunned face was pretty priceless.

Aomine laughed, “You two are gonna catch flies if you keep standing there like that.”

“Shut up Aomine-kun, we’re just surprised that all.”

“Yeah, yeah sure.”

Akashi regained consciousness and looked at Kuroko before smiling, “Come on, let's grab our kit and put it somewhere safe.”

Within minutes the gymnasts had collected their new kits, returned to the changing rooms to put it away along with the leftovers from their snacks, and to grab water bottles for the beginning of their next training session. For the next four to five hours there would be only competition training, and for an hour after that they would presenting one by one to each other. But first came another warm up, this time they would be lead and overseen by the head coach. It didn’t take long for all the gymnasts to be back from the changing room and line up along the white line surrounding the floor.

“Alright now that we are all back,” Shirogane clapped his hands, smiling to his students and then pointing to the thirteen horizontal lines that covered the sprung floor before them. “Shuttle runs, touch each line and then base line on your way back before you move onto the next. It will be a race, first person to finish gets ten v-sits, the next twenty, the next thirty and so on.”

The six gymnasts who were not miracles were surprised, someone was going to end up with a hundred and twenty v-sits, normal training was never like this.

However, this was the start of the competition training, to be the best, you have to train like the best. The miracles were the ones to go through this daily, never complaining.

A newfound respect was gained for the Miracles.

Everyone spread out along the white base line before getting into a readying position, no one wanted the most amounts of v-sits so they were going to run for their lives.

“On your marks, get set, go.” Shirogane shouted, and the gymnasts took off running forwards and back, making sure to touch every line. Akashi, Aomine and Kise were immediately at the front, closely followed by Midorima and Mori, next were the girls along with Murasakibara, who were being chased by Oshiro and Yukimura, and finally at the back, already moderately far behind the others was Kuroko.

Kuroko, being the slow runner he was, knew he was going to get the highest amounts of v-sits. The boy had no chance of catching up with Akashi, which made him unhappy as he should be on par with his partner, but that was a faraway dream. There were times Kuroko felt useless, a feeling that if he just left the gym no one would realise. Some days he felt literally invisible, people wouldn’t notice him in the changing rooms, during warm up and even during actual training, and those were the worst days. Those days would usually leave him in a dark place. Breaths became laboured as he continued to run backwards and forwards, his speed getting slower and slower.

“Come on Tetsuya, wake up and run!”

Kuroko’s head whipped around, causing him to almost trip over his own feet as he searched for the voice. Who else would it be other than his own partner Akashi? He was the only person to notice when the expressionless boy was drowning in his own thoughts. Akashi grinned as he overtook Kuroko, already a line ahead of his partner.

A pout covered the boy’s face and he let out a large breath, “easy for you to say, but thanks Akashi-kun” Kuroko gave a hidden smile and continued to slowly run from line to line, he managed to speed up a little, pushing his legs to work harder than before with the motivation he gained. Though it wasn’t likely that he would be able to catch up with the others today, he would just have to try again in the future.

The race for the least amount of v-sits became a battle` between Akashi and Aomine, both were still sprinting and were finally on their last stretch of floor. Aomine was determined to beat his captain, so he used his height and long legs to his advantage and took larger strides with his legs.

Closing in on the line lead them to the final sprint, burning what was left of their energy. Aomine was screaming as he reached down towards the line, his fingertips tapping it a second before his captain.

The two stumbled as the slipped off the sloped sprung floor gathering their balance before slowing their sprint to a jog. Legs shook with muscle fatigue when they managed to walk back to the floor, deeply panting as they were glad they had finished.

“Yes!” Aomine jumped in the air, before falling on the floor below, breathless.

His captain stood above him, hands on knees as he gave a breathy laugh at the same time. The only thing they could manage were a thumbs up to each other, Akashi appreciated it when someone put up a challenge for him. Kise at this point has touched his final line and joined Aomine on the floor, resting his head on the navy head’s lower back, rather close to his backside. Yet, no one would comment on the act between the two.

“You know you shouldn’t lay down after sprinting that much.” Akashi stated, stretching his back and wincing at the cracks his spine emitted. “Your muscles will get sore.”

 

Akashi could only chuckle as the two groaned in reply.

“Aomine, ten. Akashi, twenty. Kise, thirty.”

The three gave a nod to their coach and then laid on their backs, ready to start the v-sits. Akashi, despite having more v-sits, quickly finished before his two gym-mates and ran to the benches to grab a drink and wait for Kuroko to finish.

He knew that Kuroko would never give up on his running, even when everyone else had finished, he would go on until he had completed his last inch. That’s what attracted Akashi to Kuroko, yes, the redhead wouldn’t lie in his mind. Some part of him did have an attraction to the younger gymnast, the way his body moved with the music during their routines or the way he gave a small smile when he achieved a new skill or finished his running despite coming last.

All the little things made Akashi’s heart flutter, but he wouldn’t tell anyone, it was his secret to keep. He couldn’t ruin things with his partner since they have come so far with their acrobatic abilities.

One by one the gymnasts finished their running and one by one their name and a number was called. The poor person who got hundred and ten v-sits was almost finished by the time Kuroko collapsed to his front on the finish line. The young boy felt a couple of hands patting him on the back, “Catch your breath Kuroko, then you have a hundred and twenty v-sits. Akashi stay with him. The rest of you go get a quick drink, then return to the floor for the stretch.”

“Let’s get this done Tetsuya,” Akashi smiled and pinched the side of the boy’s blue leotard before pinging it back towards his skin.  “I did tell you to run.”

“I did run.”

“Sure. Now come on, roll over.” Akashi pushed on Kuroko’s side forcing the wilted and sweaty boy onto his back.

The red head watched as his partner’s breath calmed and he managed to straighten his arms and legs ready to begin the v-sits.

“One,” Kuroko lifted his arm and legs, his chest coming off the floor and touching his toes, before opening back to the floor. He never let his toes and feet touch the floor and quickly moved into another v-sit, “two.” The numbers increased with the more he completed, “seventy eight.” Kuroko held his position, his abdominals twitching under the strain as he let out a shaky breath. His blue eyes shut tightly as he struggled to lift his body into the next v-sit.

“Keep going Kuroko.” Shirogane yelled.

“Come on Tetsuya you can do it.” Akashi whispered into his ear.

That little bit of motivation managed to push him further.

“A hundred!”

“Come on Tetsu, twenty to go!” Aomine shouted from across the floor. The group had gathered as well, waiting for the young miracle to finish.

“A hundred and ten.” Akashi smiled, proud. Kuroko’s body shook violently as he continued his final ten v-sits, his stomach screaming at him to stop. With deep breaths and sweat dripping down his forehead he pushed on and slowly pushed his body to finish.

Akashi clapped his hands, “that’s a hundred and twenty Tetsuya. Well done.”

His small body fell limp against the floor and a groan rumbled in his throat, “I’m gonna throw up.”

“No you’re not, you are going to rest for a second, and then we’re getting a drink and start stretching.” Akashi only got another groan as a reply, to which he heard laughter from the other miracles. “I’ll go get your water.”

In a matter of minutes Kuroko was sat up taking small mouthfuls of his drink, with training constantly being this difficult he had managed to improve on his recovery time. Which further helped to improve his floor routines. He used both Akashi and Kise to stand up as him legs had basically given up on him already.

Yet, now was his time to shine, because during the stretch Kuroko was the one to beat.

The gymnasts lined up on four lines, with three people spread out among the each line and at the front stood Coach Shirogane ready to start shouting instructions. On the first line stood Kuroko, Akashi and Midorima, they would show the perfect positions for the people behind them and to lead the group.

As the stretch began, Kuroko sighed as his muscles relaxed into happy positions, however he was yelled at a few times for being too relaxed and not having straight enough arms. The stretch started from the tops of their bodies and continued downwards, until they were sat on the floor in straddle, before moving into a japana.

“This feels better…” Kuroko sighed when he stretched forwards and placed his abdomen on the floor before him. His toes were beautifully pointed and legs were expertly placed with knees pointed to the ceiling. Blue eyes relaxed to a close as all the muscles in his body were comfortable. There was a chuckle from next to him, and he opened an eye to peer at the redhead who was in the same position as him

Akashi smiled before winking at his partner, Kuroko poked his tongue out in return. The two tried to hide their laughter, yet it only drew attention to them. Coach Shirogane wandered over to Kuroko and gave his back a light push, deeming that the boy was flat on the floor he moved to grab his feet and lift them higher into the air, knee holding his chest against the floor.

Thankfully, Kuroko managed to relax into the forced stretch. Shirogane placed his feet back onto the floor and smiled, impressed at the young boy. The old man wandered around the floor coming to the other blue haired boy.

Aomine wasn’t completely flat yet, and the japana wasn’t his best area of flexibility. He was forcefully pushed down in his japana, and Coach Nijimura was called over to do the deed. Aomine tightly shut his eyes and bit his bottom lip as Coach Nijimura held his legs straight while applying pressure to his back in the form of his own body weight plus gravity.

“Your flexibility needs a lot of work Aomine.” Nijimura grinned.

“Ah! No…” The dark skinned boy slapped his hands against the floor as the black haired coach pushed more of his weight onto him, Aomine screamed internally, refusing to let out any awkward sounds.

Kise, Kuroko and a couple of the newer gymnasts started to snigger at the poor sight of Aomine. The poor boy wasn’t the most flexible in the room, and it came back to bite him in the arse during the stretch, yet as they approached elements basics, that’s where he would make up for his embarrassment with strength and power.

During splits, the two coaches went around every gymnast and corrected shapes, moving their bodies into the accurate position. Chests were up, hips were (mostly) facing forwards, tows were pointed and arms were straight either side of their bodies. All three splits were held for a substantial amount of time, with Kuroko having to stretch his over splits with the help of Nijimura.

After a good stretch and the elements basics (where Aomine got to shine like the only star in the room), they were once again sent for a drink. The gymnasts were then quickly huddled in a group as a few more coaches had joined them, two male artistic coaches and a female artistic coach. Each gymnast was sent over to their specific apparatus along with their coach and began preparing for the hours ahead.

Akashi jogged to the benches where he had left his red gym sack and pulled out his small black notebook. He quickly returned back to Kuroko and sat in front of him, Shirogane walked over to the two boys and shakily kneeled on the floor, wondering whether he would be able to get up afterwards. “Have you decided on music?”

Kuroko shook his head.

“By tomorrow then please.” Shirogane looked over to Akashi, who was readying his pen and paper to take notes, “Okay, two minutes thirty seconds long as usual, I want at least three balances and two dynamic skills, and two tumbles each. Also I want to see artistry!” He laughed, “I want to see you dancing your hearts out, and for Kuroko to smile all the way through it. You have to show that you want to win against Seirin, I want to see the best and most flamboyant routine you can do.”

Both Akashi and Kuroko chuckled at that comment, they had to love their coach’s choice of words.

“Also don’t forget that you need to work on your individual pieces.” Shirogane’s bone cracked as he managed to make it back to his feet and away to oversee Kise who was warming up for vault.

Akashi and Kuroko quickly got down to business, choosing balances and dynamics for their routine.

“How about we throw in a new balance?” Kuroko suggested.

Akashi gave a nod, “It would work in our favour difficulty wise, but time wise I don’t know if we have the training time to learn one.”

“Then what if we just adapt one of our old balances, that way it wouldn’t be new but it would be harder.”

“That works.” Akashi jotted a few notes into his book and smiled. The notebook was then returned to the floor and the boy stood, “So let’s get started.”

Kuroko joined him, “So flamboyant huh?”

“Yeah, any moves come to your mind?”

“Obviously, but I guarantee you everyone will question our sexuality afterwards.” The blue head joked with a straight face.

Akashi laughed, “Like they don’t already.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> JG = Japanese Gymnastics (No idea if they actually exist but we have British Gymnastics so I thought why not, they make all the rules etc)
> 
> V-sits = A deadly abdomen conditioning exercise
> 
> Japana = Basically a straddle but legs are about 45 degrees apart and stomach it generally flat on the floor)
> 
> Stretching = A lot of forced stretching (pushing/moving by coach) isn't allowed over in England as it's seen as dangerous for the muscles and causing rips, though for the sake of the story there will be forcing as who doesn't want to see Aomine scream like a girl
> 
> Leotards = When I/someone who can draw make a picture, I will add it in.
> 
> Annnnnnd I've probably forgotten a lot of stuff and this chapter is split into two parts because my brain can only handle so many words on a page. So the net chapter is Kuroko and Akashi starting to flamboyantly dance around the floor and the others working on their pieces, I did say this was going to be sloooow and looooong. Woooo.
> 
> Thanks again!


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